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Erasmus nears rugby immortality, his XV for Japan shows he knows that
Success can breed complacency, but it can also breed restlessness. Fortunately for the Springboks and their loyal supporters, Rassie Erasmus’ feet remain maddeningly itchy.
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Two World Cups, a Lions series win and three Rugby Championship crowns should already be enough to secure this team’s legacy as one of the sport’s greatest dynasties. But there are horizons yet unconquered, and this Autumn Nations Series could be this group’s final chance to complete their checklist.
Ireland and France await – winners of the last four Six Nations, the top two ranked European sides and the only northern hemisphere outfits to earn the respect of South African punters since Clive Woodward’s England. Conquer Paris and Dublin, and the few Erasmus doubters that remain will shrink into silence. Do that, and the Springboks will have nothing left to prove, only new heights to chase.
But first, there’s Japan. On paper it should be a gimme. Erasmus has made a few experimental tweaks – Cheslin Kolbe at full-back, Zachary Porthen on debut in the front-row, Andre Esterhuizen picked as a hybrid centre-flank – but this is still close to full strength.
It’s not because Erasmus fears Japan, nor to appease the London-based diaspora. The word that keeps surfacing around him this week is “combinations,” and that is exactly what’s front and centre in his mind.
The front-row trio, the half-back pairing, the midfield spine – these are the little ecosystems on which South African rugby’s grand machinery depends. “Porthen to make Bok debut as Erasmus sticks with tested combinations,” read the official release. Tested, yes, but still evolving. The coach knows the next fortnight will require both cohesion and invention – that balance between the familiar and the unknown that has defined his reign since 2018.
Sacha Feinberg-Mngomezulu starts again, reaffirming his grip on the No.10 jersey. And with Manie Libbok on the bench, it’s clear the freewheeling attack that gained momentum during the Rugby Championship will keep developing – not as a rebellion against the Boks’ bruising identity, but as its natural evolution.
When Erasmus says this tour will “measure ourselves against the best in the world,” he’s not exaggerating. These aren’t just tough away days; they’re ideological tests. France and Ireland represent the two most complete rugby systems in the modern game: France, a fusion of chaos and structure, powered by the world’s best domestic league; and Ireland, a machine built on clarity and repetition, desperate to prove their veteran core can still rule the north. The Springboks must show they can live – and win – in both worlds.
For South Africa, France and Ireland don’t just represent the best teams in the north – they embody the two challenges Erasmus hasn’t fully conquered: control and continuity.
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France test control. They thrive in volatility, feasting on broken play and emotion. When the crowd lifts, they lift. When the game fractures, they flourish. The Boks have built their empire on the opposite impulse; on strangling chaos. The 2023 quarterfinal was proof of this. France played the prettier rugby, perhaps they even deserved to win, but South Africa weatherd the hurricane. All the big moments seemed to go South Africa’s way, as if Erasmus and his team were able to use the emotions of the home crowd as a weapon.
Ireland, by contrast, test continuity. They don’t want chaos; they want permanence. Every movement, every line, every clean-out is rehearsed until it hums like muscle memory. Where France attack in storms, Ireland tortue teams with a thousand tiny cuts. They spend eighty minutes repeating patterns until opponents wilt. The Boks’ instinctive strength of thriving in turmoil counts for less when the opponent refuses to give them any.
That’s why Erasmus’s talk of “combinations” carries weight. Ireland’s greatest asset is that their cohesion is club-born – Leinster’s attack, Munster’s edge, Ulster’s defensive structure, all bound into one national framework. South Africa don’t have that luxury. Their players are scattered across England, France, Japan and the URC. Unity has to be engineered, not inherited.
This is why the Boks lean into their mythology more than any other side. It’s not just patriotic theatre but a necessary glue – a way to manufacture belonging. The Japan fixture, therefore, isn’t merely a tune-up. It’s a rehearsal for connection, an attempt to simulate the shared intuition that Ireland take for granted.
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Erasmus knows the record in Ireland – two wins from the last six visits to Dublin. Every defeat has been a masterclass in small margins. He’s chasing fluency, not just force; connection, not just collision. The Bok template can still bully the world, but to beat Ireland it must also think like them.
These are the stakes of the tour: two challenges that demand evolution. France will ask whether the Springboks can dance; Ireland will ask whether they can sync. Erasmus’s restlessness is rooted in that tension. His obsession isn’t just winning – it’s finding the version of the Boks that can outfight France and outthink Ireland.
If they pull it off, they’ll edge closer to being remembered as the greatest team of all time. If they don’t, the itch will only grow stronger.
